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Al-Qaeda Linked Group Claims Gulf Tanker Attack
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704017904575408624038183854.html
By MARGARET COKER, NOUR MALAS And SUMMER SAID

ABU DHABI—An Islamic militant group affiliated with al Qaeda claimed responsibility for an attack on a Japanese-owned oil tanker while it traveled through the Strait of Hormuz last week, raising fresh worry about the vulnerability of the world's delicate oil-supply routes.

In a statement posted to a militant website, the Abdullah Azzam Brigade said they targeted the supertanker M. Star in what they hoped would be a dramatic blow to the global economy and oil markets.

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European Pressphoto Agency
A photo released by Emirates News Agency shows the M. Star oil tanker near Fujeira port, United Arab Emirates, on July 28, 2010. An explosion occurred on board the Japanese tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, the ship's owner said in a statement, with the cause of the blast still to be clarified.

"After midnight last Wednesday, the martyr hero Ayyub Al Tayshan blew himself up in the Japanese oil tanker M.Star in the Strait of Hormuz between the U.A.E. and Oman," according to the statement, referring to an apparent suicide attack against the ship.

The statement didn't give any precise details about how the group attacked the gigantic supertanker or chose that specific ship. However, the statement said that the group deliberately chose the location of the attack, as it wanted to "weaken the global infidel order that has assumed authority over Muslim lands, looting their resources, and to lift the oppression of Muslims."

The claim—whether a legitimate one, or an opportunistic publicity stunt—could rattle oil markets. Oil prices have been tempered by lackluster global demand and excess pumping capacity around the world. But the Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most important chokepoints. It is the gateway for some 20% of the daily global supply coming from the oil-rich Persian Gulf, and al Qaeda has threatened to attack shipping there in the past.

On Wednesday, U.S. Benchmark crude was down 63 cents at $81.92 a barrel on Globex, after hitting three-month highs a day earlier.

A spokesman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which patrols the Gulf waterways, said he couldn't comment on the credibility of the militants' claim of responsibility. The officer at the Bahrain-based command said that U.S. Navy divers had taken part in the investigation that is still underway and being conducted on the tanker by the owner of the vessel, Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. The spokesman said he didn't know the results of those tests.

Junto Endoh, the general manager for Mitsui's office in Qatar, said that the company believed that the damage was consistent with an "outside explosion." However, he said that the investigation could still take weeks to complete.

"We have no idea if [the militants' claim of responsibility] is true at this point, we are still continuing to inspect the damage in the ship to determine the cause," Mr. Endoh said in a telephone interview.

The company claimed last week that its vessel had come under attack while sailing in the Strait of Hormuz, reporting damage to the tanker but no casualties among its crew. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Oman, countries close to the tanker at the time of the incident, initially sought to downplay these claims, saying instead that a freak giant wave was the cause of the damage.

Later that same day, when the tanker docked at the Port of Fujairah, officials there said that a large dent in the tanker's hull appeared to have been caused by a collision.

Officials at the port weren't immediately available for comment Wednesday. Fujairah is one of the seven city states that make up the U.A.E.

Named for a now-deceased religious mentor of Osama bin Laden, Abdullah Azzam Brigades has claimed responsibility for numerous past terrorist attacks in the Middle East.

Between 2004 and 2005 the group claimed responsibility for a string of bombings at Egypt's resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and the Sinai Peninsula that killed more than 100 people. In a separate 2005 attack, the group also claimed responsibility for firing rockets from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula at two U.S. naval vessels docked in the nearby Aqaba port in Jordan.

—Tahani Karrar-Lewsley contributed to this article.
Write to Margaret Coker at [e-mail], Nour Malas at [e-mail] and Summer Said at [e-mail]